Optical Component, Optical Module, and Electronic Device

This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/CN2023/133483, filed on Nov. 22, 2023, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202310009753.8, filed on Jan. 4, 2023. The disclosures of the aforementioned applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

This application relates to the field of optical communication technologies, and in particular, to an optical component, an optical module, and an electronic device.

With development of optical communication technologies, people have increasingly higher requirements for a bandwidth. A high-rate optical module is an inevitable trend for future development of optical communication technologies. Currently, a rate of an optical module has been rapidly increased from early 10 G to current 400 G or even 800 G.

A quantity of channels may be increased to increase the rate of the optical module. However, an increase in the quantity of channels leads to an increase in a size, costs, and power consumption of the optical module.

Embodiments of this application provide an optical component, an optical module, and an electronic device, to reduce costs and a size of the optical component.

To achieve the foregoing objective, the following technical solutions are used in this application.

A first aspect of embodiments of this application provides an optical component, including at least one optical sub-assembly. The optical sub-assembly includes a laser, a first lens located on a light emergence side of the laser, and an optical fiber array located on a light emergence side of the first lens. The laser has a first light outlet configured to emit a first light beam and a second light outlet configured to emit a second light beam. The first lens is configured to: transmit the first light beam and emit a first converged light beam, is configured to: transmit the second light beam and emit a second converged light beam, and is configured to transmit the first converged light beam and the second converged light beam to the optical fiber array. A first optical fiber of the optical fiber array is configured to receive the first converged light beam, and a second optical fiber of the optical fiber array is configured to receive the second converged light beam.

According to the optical component provided in embodiments of this application, a corresponding quantity of optical sub-assemblies may be set based on a multi-channel parallel solution. Compared with an existing optical component in which one laser has only one light outlet and one laser corresponds to one lens, an optical component in the multi-channel parallel solution needs to be implemented through cooperation of a plurality of lasers and a plurality of lenses. Consequently, a quantity of optical elements required by the optical component is increased with an increased quantity of channels, and costs and a size of the optical component are increased. In embodiments of this application, the two light outlets are integrated into the same laser, that is, the laser has dual light outlets (the first light outlet and the second light outlet). This reduces a quantity of lasers in the optical component. Then, the laser having dual light outlets is used together with the first lens. The first light beam is converged by the first lens, and the second light beam is converged by the first lens. In other words, the two light beams are converged by the same lens (the first lens) and then transmitted to the optical fiber array. This correspondingly reduces a quantity of lenses in the optical component. Finally, the first light beam is converged by the first lens and then transmitted to the first optical fiber of the optical fiber array, and the second light beam is converged by the first lens and then transmitted to the second optical fiber of the optical fiber array. In embodiments of this application, the laser having dual light outlets cooperates with the optical elements such as the first lens and the optical fiber array to implement optical transmission. Compared with conventional technologies, in embodiments of this application, the quantity of lasers and a quantity of first lenses that are required in the optical component can be reduced, the quantity of optical elements in the optical component is reduced, and a size of the optical component is reduced, thereby reducing a size of a packaging structure and simplifying a packaging process.

In an embodiment, a distance L between the first light outlet or the second light outlet and the first lens and a focal length f of the first lens satisfy: f<L<2f. In this way, the first light beam and the second light beam that are emitted by the laser may form the first converged light beam and the second converged light beam after passing through the first lens.

In an embodiment, the optical fiber array includes a first light inlet and a second light inlet, the first light inlet is coupled to the first optical fiber, the second light inlet is coupled to the second optical fiber, and a spacing between the first light inlet and the second light inlet is three to six times a spacing between the first light outlet and the second light outlet. In this way, the first converged light beam incident to the first light inlet and the second converged light beam incident to the second light inlet can be separated.

In an embodiment, the spacing between the first light outlet and the second light outlet ranges from 20 μm to 40 μm.

In an embodiment, a distance from the first light outlet to an optical axis of the first lens is the same as a distance from the second light outlet to the optical axis of the first lens. In this way, the first converged light beam and the second converged light beam that are converged by the first lens have equal sizes and opposite directions.

In an embodiment, the optical sub-assembly further includes a second lens, the second lens is located on the light emergence side of the first lens, and the second lens is configured to converge the first converged light beam to the first optical fiber, and is further configured to converge the second converged light beam to the second optical fiber. In this way, the first converged light beam and the second converged light beam can be further converged to the optical fiber array.

In an embodiment, the optical sub-assembly further includes an isolator, and the isolator is located on the light emergence side of the first lens. In this way, the first converged light beam and the second converged light beam can be transmitted unidirectionally, and the light beams are prevented from being reflected to the laser.

In an embodiment, the optical component includes a plurality of optical sub-assemblies, the plurality of optical sub-assemblies are arranged along a second direction, and the second direction intersects with a light emitting direction of the laser. In this way, a multi-channel parallel optical component can be implemented.

In an embodiment, the optical component further includes an optical fiber connector, and the optical fiber connector is connected to the optical fiber array through the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber. In this way, the optical component can be plugged in and out of an external device through the optical fiber connector, to implement an electrical connection.

A second aspect of embodiments of this application provides an optical module, including the optical component in the first aspect and a receiving optical sub-assembly, where the receiving optical sub-assembly receives an optical signal transmitted by the optical component.

The optical module provided in the second aspect of embodiments of this application includes the optical component in the first aspect. Beneficial effects of the optical module are the same as those of the optical component. Details are not described herein again.

A third aspect of embodiments of this application provides an electronic device, including the optical module in the second aspect, where the optical module is electrically connected to a printed circuit board.

The electronic device provided in the third aspect of embodiments of this application includes the optical module in the second aspect. Beneficial effects of the electronic device are the same as those of the optical module. Details are not described herein again.

The following describes the technical solutions in embodiments of this application with reference to the accompanying drawings in embodiments of this application. It is clear that the described embodiments are merely some rather than all of embodiments of this application.

The following terms such as “first” and “second” are merely used for ease of description, and shall not be understood as an indication or implication of relative importance or an implicit indication of a quantity of indicated technical features. Therefore, a feature limited by “second”, “first”, and the like may explicitly or implicitly include one or more features. In the descriptions of this application, unless otherwise stated, “a plurality of” means two or more than two.

In addition, in embodiments of this application, orientation terms such as “upper”, “lower”, “left”, and “right” may include but are not limited to definitions based on illustrated orientations in which components in the accompanying drawings are placed. It should be understood that, these directional terms may be relative concepts, are used for relative description and clarification, and may change correspondingly based on changes in the orientations in which the components in the accompanying drawings are placed in the accompanying drawings.

In embodiments of this application, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the term “connection” should be understood in a broad sense. For example, the “connection” may be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integrated connection, or may be a direct connection or an indirect connection implemented through an intermediate medium. In addition, the term “coupled” may be “directly electrically connected”, or may be “indirectly electrically connected through an intermediate medium”. The term “contact” may be direct contact, or may be indirect contact implemented through an intermediate medium.

In embodiments of this application, the term “and/or” describes an association relationship between associated objects and may indicate that three relationships exist. For example, A and/or B may indicate the following cases: Only A exists, both A and B exist, and only B exists, where A and B may be singular or plural. The character “/” generally indicates an “or” relationship between the associated objects.

An embodiment of this application provides a data center network system. As shown in, the data center network systemmainly includes a network, a data center network, and a server.

The data center networkis connected to the networkin an upstream direction, and is connected to the serverin a downstream direction.

For example, as shown in, the data center networkincludes a border leaf switch, a spine switch, and a leaf switch. The border leaf switchis connected to the networkin the upstream direction, and is connected to the spine switchin the downstream direction. The spine switchis connected to the border leaf switchin the upstream direction, and is connected to the leaf switchin the downstream direction. The leaf switchis connected to the spine switchin the upstream direction, and is connected to the serverin the downstream direction.

A plurality of border leaf switchesform a border leaf switch layer. A plurality of spine switches form a spine switch layer. A plurality of leaf switchesform a leaf switch layer.

The spine switchis a switch that performs a converging function for leaf switch. Generally, the spine switchis deployed at an upper layer of the leaf switch, and is configured to implement a packet routing or forwarding function between the leaf switches. To implement non-blocking forwarding, the spine switchand the leaf switchare generally connected through Clos networking. In an embodiment, for a multi-layer network architecture, each switching device at each layer is connected to all switching devices at a lower layer, so that a non-blocking, re-arrangeable, and scalable architecture can be implemented. For example, the border leaf switchand the spine switchare also connected through Clos networking. The leaf switchis generally disposed on the top of a rack of the server, serves as an access switch of the rack of the server, and is also referred to as a top of rack (TOR) switch.

In some embodiments, the data center network systemfurther includes a data center network manager (DCNM) (not shown in the figure). The DCNM is configured to manage, through the network, the data center networkincluding a plurality of switches (the border leaf switch, the spine switch, and the leaf switch). For example, the DCNM may be implemented in a form of a server, and an application APP responsible for managing a network is integrated on the DCNM.

Embodiments of this application provide an optical module. The optical module may be disposed in the foregoing data center network system. Alternatively, the optical module may be disposed in any communication device that needs to receive a plurality of different wavelengths. This is not limited in embodiments of this application, and the optical module may be appropriately disposed based on an actual requirement.

Currently, three main solutions are available to increase a rate of the optical module. In a first solution, the rate of the optical module may be increased by increasing a rate of an optoelectronic chip inside the optical module. For example, performance of an optical modulator and an optoelectronic detector may be improved, and a rate of the optical modulator may be increased, thereby increasing a transmission rate of a single wavelength. In a second solution, the rate of the optical module may be increased by using a high-order modulation technology. In a third solution, the rate of the optical module may be increased by increasing a quantity of channels.

However, in the first solution, a breakthrough needs to be made on the optoelectronic chip to increase the rate of the optoelectronic chip. High costs are required to increase the rate of the optoelectronic chip, and a technology is not mature. Consequently, it needs to take very long time to implement the solution.

In the second solution, as the rate of the optical module increases from 100 G to 400 G, a modulation form of an intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD) optical module is also improved from an on-off keying (OOK) modulation to pulse amplitude modulation (PAM). The high-order modulation leads to a small noise margin for the optical module. Therefore, complex processing circuits are subsequently required.

In the third solution, the rate of the optical module can be quickly increased by increasing the quantity of channels, and the solution has become a most commonly used manner of increasing the rate of the optical module currently. The quantity of channels may be increased by using a plurality of parallel channels or a plurality of serial channels. For example, the plurality of parallel channels may be parallel single mode (PSM) fibers. The plurality of serial channels may be combined by using an optical multiplexer (OMUX), to output an optical signal.

In some embodiments, the optical module is electrically connected to a printed circuit board (PCB) and is integrated into an electronic device. The electronic device may include, for example, a server, a switch, an optical fiber network adapter, and an optical fiber transceiver.

For example, the optical module includes a transmitting optical sub-assembly (TOSA) and a receiving optical sub-assembly (ROSA). Both the transmitting optical sub-assembly and the receiving optical sub-assembly are electrically connected to the printed circuit board.

For example, the transmitting optical sub-assembly includes an electrical-to-optical conversion chip and a monitor photodiode (MD). The electrical-to-optical conversion chip and the monitor photodiode are packaged together to form the transmitting optical sub-assembly. The electrical-to-optical conversion chip may be, for example, a chip including a laser diode (LD) or a chip including a semiconductor light emitting diode. The electrical-to-optical conversion chip receives an electrical signal that carries sending information and that is transmitted by the PCB, converts the electrical signal into an optical signal, and outputs the optical signal through an optical component.

For example, the receiving optical sub-assembly includes an optical-to-electrical conversion chip and an amplifier. The optical-to-electrical conversion chip and the amplifier are packaged together to form the receiving optical sub-assembly. For example, the optical-to-electrical conversion chip may be a chip including a photodiode (PD), a chip including a PIN diode (pin diode), or a chip including an avalanche photodiode (APD). The optical-to-electrical conversion chip converts a received optical signal into an electrical signal, and then transmits the electrical signal to the amplifier. The amplifier amplifies the electrical signal, and transmits an amplified electrical signal to the PCB.

The following uses an example in which the optical component provided in embodiments of this application is the transmitting optical sub-assembly for description.

To increase the rate of the optical module by increasing the quantity of channels, an integrated chip solution or a discrete component solution may be generally used.

An 800 G optical component is used as an example to illustrate a multi-channel parallel optical component based on an integrated chip solution. As shown in, the optical componentincludes a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), a fiber array unit (FAU), and an optical fiber connector.

The photonic integrated circuit is integrated and packaged based on silicon photonics (SiP). During SiP integration, the optical component has high integration, and the FAU is directly connected to a SiP chip. Even if the quantity of channels continues to be increased based on an actual requirement, manufacturing costs of the optical component are not increased linearly with the quantity of channels. Therefore, multi-channel parallel implemented based on an integrated chip has a great advantage.

However, due to a limitation of a characteristic of a silicon-based material, the optical componentbased on the integration solution cannot be monolithically integrated with a laser chip, and requires an external light source or an on-chip hybrid integrated light source. Therefore, process complexity of the optical componentbased on the integration solution is increased. For an 800 G DR8 multi-channel parallel solution, at least four extra lasers need to be integrated to transmit an optical signal.

In the foregoing solution, a plurality of lasers are required, and a required SiP chip structure is complex. Therefore, a size and costs of the optical componentare increased.

Embodiments of this application further show an optical component. The optical component is a multi-channel parallel solution based on a discrete component. As shown in, the optical componentincludes a plurality of lasers, a plurality of lenses, an optical fiber array unit, and an optical fiber connector. One lasercorresponds to one lens. In an 8-channel discrete component solution, eight lasersand eight lensesneed to be disposed, and emitting light beams of the lasersare separately converged to the optical fiber array unitthrough the lenses, and then transmitted to the optical fiber connector.

In the multi-channel parallel solution based on a discrete component, an increase in a quantity of channels leads to an increase in a quantity of lasers and a quantity of lenses in the optical component, and an increase in complexity of the optical componentand a quantity of optical elements. Consequently, a size, costs, and power consumption of an optical module are increased. Especially, when the optical module is upgraded from a 400 G 4-channel (400 G DR4) optical module to an 800 G 8-channel (800 G DR8) optical module, the increase in the quantity of channels leads to an increase in a package size of the optical component. Consequently, it is difficult to miniaturize the optical component.

In view of this, to reduce the size and the costs of the optical component, embodiments of this application further provide an optical component. As shown in, the optical componentincludes at least one optical sub-assembly. The optical sub-assemblyincludes a laser, a first lens, and an optical fiber array.